In the spring of 1850, while the United States was polarized over the slavery debate and Daniel Webster was negotiating the compromise of that year, the outspoken abolitionist, feminist, and journalist, Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815-1884) unleashed a congressional sex scandal. Frustrated by what she saw as the Massachusetts senator's surrender to the Southern Slave Power, she published an article alleging Webster's marital infidelities with women of color. As a result of the media storm that followed, Swisshelm lost her job at the New York Tribune. This is but one of the many episodes found in her 1880 autobiography, "Half a Century," which is a narrative of the frontier, of the fight against slavery, and of Swisshelm's fearless, compassionate, and innovative work as a surgical nurse treating Union soldiers who had suffered the most terrible wounds of war. (Pamela Nagami, M.D.)

IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the amount of languishing projects (and hence the amount of files on our hard-pressed server), we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't managed to record anything. If we don't hear from you for three months, your project may be opened up to a group project if a Book Coordinator is found. Files you have completed will be used in this project. If you haven't recorded anything yet, your project will be removed from the forum (contact any admin to see if it can be re-instated).Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process (unless you are the BC or PL). Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!

This is my first recording on the new Audacity 2.2.1, which I downloaded yesterday. If you download it as a replacement to the old program, it retains all your old settings, except the particulars on exporting mp3 files. Wikipedia tells you how to reset them properly and it is not difficult. As a precaution, I made notes of all my old preferences and settings, but so far, I have not had to make use of them. The new program is faster and more streamlined.

My best,

Pam

"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

Don't thank me, because I ought to be thanking you! This opening chapter already has me gripped. What a remarkable woman she's turning out to be, and after only ten pages, too.

One note, at 4.44-4.48. It's the bottom half of page 9, the start of the paragraph:
To me, no [heard my] childhood was possible under the training this indicates...

Thank you for the heads up about Audacity. It's comforting! Whenever there are updates I try to avoid doing it at the last minute (not an issue in this case), but I also usually give it a bit of time, too. I usually assume that the website is swamped with people downloading immediately after release, and that, well, sometimes there are a few kinks to be worked out of the system. That's probably inevitable when you suddenly have thousands of users road testing a new version! As for this month, I've been deliberately holding off until I've finished recording a number of sections for my open solos. On the very slim chance there were any audible changes, I didn't want it to be too obvious moving from one poem/chapter to the next that my setup had changed. But soon I shall venture forth, fortified by the knowledge that at least it hasn't pole axed you...

You just hit record or "r'" to continue recording from the end--it doesn't start a new track, like before, so that's good. You can also hit pause and then unpause to continue recording, but I always stop with the space bar, so this new keyboard shortcut is good for me.
To make a new track for splicing in, you hit shift+r.

Pam

"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."